


There was that one time....

by CristalDePhoenix



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Fluff, Gen, M/M, Mention of blood, Mild Language, a little action
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-25 04:30:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13826529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CristalDePhoenix/pseuds/CristalDePhoenix
Summary: Nihlus is in training under Saren, and it's time for a mission.





	There was that one time....

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kuraiummei](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kuraiummei/gifts).



> For the lovely person who's story I love. Hope it puts a smile in your day.  
> And thanks to Marie_Fanwriter and Spicy_Gnome for being beta's.

“Nihlus…”

 

Was the only word that came out of the electric-eyed Spectre’s mouth as he returned to his ship. Saren Arterius had needed to leave his carmine protégé behind for a few days, one of his many antics had attracted too much attention while under cover. Thus Nihlus had needed to remain behind until his return.

 

The trip to and from the merc base as a  _ potential client _ was better taken without his own ship regardless of Nihlus’ mistake and instead he’d hired an expensive leisure transport. But what he found upon his return to his own ship was not what he was expecting. He was beginning to regret the decision entirely.

 

“Heeeyyy, Saren! You’re back! How’d it go?” Came the happy trill from Nihlus. He was laying on the settee, among a nest of blankets and pillows, while holding a controller to a game console. A vid screen had been set up on the table with some sort of extranet based game, and his bare feet were on the table beside it. The last two items weren’t there when he left, and his mandible twitched in agitation.

 

Instead of answering the question, he posed a more pointed one of his own. “What happened… to my ship?”

 

Said ship was a disaster. Clothes lay forgotten all over the furniture and floor. Takeout containers were everywhere, one only half eaten left on the table with a furka still sticking out of it, a half assembled pistol was lying on the workbench amongst a number of knives that he was oiling. For one that kept his space impeccably clean and neat… this was offensive. But he gave his protégé a chance to explain himself first. It should however be a very good explanation.

 

“Aahhh… the ship? Hmmm… well, you did say you would message me when you were on your way back? I was gonna clean it then.” The accompanying trill of honest and apologetic subvocals did make it seem more genuine. 

 

_ ‘But was it?’ _ The silver Spectre had seen his student use that very same facial expression to get his way with a mark, and he narrowed his eyes at the younger torin in mild annoyance. The ever punctual Spectre had sent the message the moment he left the merc base. 

 

As if on cue, the lazy carmine torin’s omnitool went off with an important message tone. After Nihlus looked it over, green eyes glanced up at his grumpy mentor and he smiled gleefully. “Ya’ mean, this message?”

 

The electric-eyed Spectre came closer and leaned over his student to verify that, yes indeed, it was the message he had sent  _ two days ago. _ The comm buoys in this area must be exceptionally bad, and the message was not flagged as a high priority either. 

 

The ever clever candidate may have wanted to alter the time of the delivery ping, making it seem as though he only just received the message, but Saren knew he was not that tech savvy… yet. There were a great many things lacking in his student’s education when he took on the smiling, knife-loving torin, but the most important things were there. He had potential and a willingness to learn, along with the determination to get there.

 

Regardless, his student should know by now to  _ always _ keep his ship in pristine condition, there was no telling when they would need it to be ready for battle. A thought flashed through the older torin’s mind, _ ‘If this is the state of the main area, what does my kitchen look like?’ _ A few anxious steps took him to his destination to…. surprisingly very little mess at all. Apart from some mugs and furka in the sink, and the half full kavamaker, nothing else was touched.

 

Of course, he should not have been too concerned. The charming carmine torin had no real idea how to cook anything decent, hence all the takeout containers. With a small sigh of relief at that fact for once, he turned back to the lazing offender, face his usual unreadable mask, with the barest hint of annoyance showing through. The state of the kitchen may grant him a small reprieve, but Saren was still very much annoyed at the state of the rest of his ship.

 

“Nihlus,” his voice sounded almost calm, neutral.

 

“Hmm ‘ya?” Was the laidback response. 

 

“You will clean this, all of it. Now!”

 

The pile of blankets and pillows jumped at the sudden rise in his mentor’s voice. The experienced Spectre never so much as changed his tone unless the situation called for it. Which meant one thing. He was in  _ deeeeeep  _ trouble. In a flash the controller was dropped nevermind where he was in the game, and he started to gather all the pillows to return to their places, grabbing takeout containers as he went.

 

“You will have this ship clean enough to eat off of  _ any _ surface by the time I return. I am going to get some supplies. We will be heading out soon.” 

 

The  _ or else _ needn’t be stated. Nihlus had worked alongside his mentor long enough to know that. His statement also summed up the post-mission briefing, the intel gathering went well and the electric-eyed torin had a plan of action to put these pirates out of commission. 

 

Once the airlock cycled through again and Nihlus knew that Saren was off the ship, he breathed an over-exaggerated sigh of relief.

 

“Well... thank fuck for that. Glad cleaning the ship is the only penalty he’s given me..." he mumbled to himself while continuing to clean. “Why does the universe hate me so much? Stupid message.” 

 

The red-plated torin absolutely  _ hated  _ cleaning if he didn't need to do it. One of these days he would have his own ship and he could do whateverr the fuck he wanted on it and the ‘nanny’ wouldn't be able to say a thing about it. But until that day, clean he must.

 

\----------------------------

 

It took a good long while for Nihlus to clean everything up to the near impossible standards he knew his mentor prefered, but he finished with a few minutes to spare before said grumpy Spectre returned. He presumed the silver-thorn-in-his-side-for-the-moment took his time to get the needed supplies so as to give his lazy protégé enough time to complete the arduous task. 

 

When Saren finally did return, he did not even spare the green-eyed troublemaker a glance. Instead he immediately went about inspecting his ship, his home, from stem to stern, searching for even the smallest amount of dust or dirt. And… surprisingly… found none. Nihlus had learned well after the first few failed attempts at skimping on the corners when his turn to clean came along in the past. 

 

“Good.” Was the flat response Saren gave him, but to Nihlus it was like saying job well done. He knew his mentor well enough to take the compliment given, and was smiling like a lunatic. He'd learned that to get any positive word from the electric-eyed torin was akin to receiving high praise from a lesser one.

 

The carmine spectre-to-be didn't have time to enjoy his victory though.

 

“The supplies should have arrived by now. We have crates to stack and put away. They will be outside the cargo hold, come.” Saren turned around to head back out into the airlock, expecting his student to follow diligently.

 

With a sigh, Nihlus relented. Any sort of celebration he’d had in mind disappeared from his thoughts as he headed for the airlock. 

 

Standing next to his mentor as the decontamination cycle ran, he eyed the silver wonder of his life in secret. The view never failed to please, even if he could not seem to get any sort of sexual reaction from the electric-eyed beauty. What he wouldn't give to run his tongue up that delectable looking neck hide and down those gorgeous horns and then…

 

His thoughts were interrupted by the beep of the decon cycle being finished and the doors opening, the rancid smell of Omega slapping him in the face. ‘ _ Some wake-up call _ …’ he thought to himself and wondered if his mentor had caught him staring. It was hard to tell since that unreadable mask of his never wavered.

 

The crates were stacked outside on a hover platform, a bored looking delivery-batarian was waiting with a datapad in one hand and a foul-smelling cigarette in the other.

 

“C'mon fellas, I can't wait around all day or the boss‘ll have my eyes.”

 

Saren ignored the impatient words and went to work picking up the crates and stacking them in the airlock. The lanky torin followed suit. There weren't too many crates, so it only took two cycles of the airlock to get it all inside. Saren signed off on the delivery, sending the impatient batarian on his way in his cobbled together delivery truck.

 

Once back inside the ship where the recycled air was blessedly fresh, they unpacked and stored away all the supplies. Only after this did Saren speak up again as they sat at the table with a fresh cup of kava each.

 

“Nihlus, their operation is larger than expected, however the two of us should be able to handle it. The plan is simple; infiltrate the base, split-up and attack them on two fronts. This will begin the division of their security forces, then we will detonate pre-planted explosives in other areas, so as to minimise reinforcements and keep them guessing as to how many of us are actually attacking the facility.”

 

The Spectre brought out his omnitool, projecting a 3D model of the entire base to show their entry vector, planned travel route and bomb planting locations before heading to their respective areas to begin the assault. 

 

“Remaining undetected while we set everything up is paramount to the success of this mission. I will head to their control room to hack their security feeds, sending mixed signals and retrieving any valuable information, while you set a larger charge in their generator room. That we will blow last to destroy what remains of the base.” 

 

The bright-eyed student listened carefully, quickly memorising the route he would need to take, as well as alternative escape routes just as was drilled into his head by his mentor. He had no qualms about blowing shit up. Planting military grade charges were a favorite pastime of his, after all. He was starting to look forward to this mission already, planning what kind of bombs they would need for the task at hand.

 

“Everything we need to make the explosives came with the delivery. We will prepare them in transit, and are departing immediately.” He paused for a moment before pressing a few keys on his omnitool, “There is one more thing-”

 

Nihlus’s omnitool beeped with a transferred file. The knife-wielder cautiously looked down at the blinking message light, his mandibles pulling in tightly to his jaw.

 

“Once we set off, you will complete every item on that list by the end of the day. Since you deemed it fitting to laze around these few days, I want to ensure you are prepared for this mission.”

 

With that, Saren stood up and left the common area for the cockpit to plot their jump and get them out of the docks. 

 

When Nihlus was alone he looked at the file, his face contorted into an expression of pure horror. It was an exercise program from hell, followed by some academic module on jump calculation mathematics. Every now and then Saren would go through a module with him to help him catch up with his missed schooling. But this… to do all of this in one day was absolute madness... and all just because he slacked off for a few days? 

 

He checked his omntiool clock. ‘ _ And it's already afternoon!’ _

“Awww, shi-”

 

“ **Language.** ”

 

“Eheh, sorry?” The carmine spectre-to-be flinched. But Saren hadn’t even turned around to reprimand him. Although, even without seeing the Spectre’s face, he expected there would have been a slight raise of his pale browridge. Nihlus sighed and got up, taking his empty mug to the sink to rinse out, and then he waited until they went through the relay to start on the impossible list. He knew it would be futile to argue, even though he  _ did _ do his normal morning routine every day. At least they had  two days at FTL. Maybe he could ‘rest’ tomorrow while building bombs…

 

\----------------------

 

The rest of the transit went as planned, and Nihlus did manage to ‘rest’ the next day. Saren might have given him a punishment with the exercise regime, but he at least seemed to want his student fully functional for the mission.

 

Once in the system, Saren changed the ship’s configuration so that they could run as close to silent as possible without stealth capability. He even let Nihlus watch as he pulled off his signature move to enter the atmosphere without detection, landing about 3 clicks from the base, behind a hill. The two torini gathered up their gear and waited for just before the planet's nightfall, before heading out. The silver-plated spectre had, of course, timed their arrival just so, in order to be in the right place at the right time without waste. He was always efficient. Almost scarily so.

 

The mission began with a hike around the hill and towards the base, reaching it just as the darkness of night had descended on them. It was an unassuming structure from the surface, meant to avoid attention, the real base was underground. Even the security was lax, just a few cameras and a chain link fence. These were easily bypassed and the two made their way into the ventilation system with ease. From here on in though, things began getting tricky.

 

Saren had already bypassed the motion detectors in the vents on both their routes, so they split up and headed for their respective destinations, planting explosives at key points along the way. But just placing them in the vent wouldn't do, they had to sneak out, plant the bomb on a supporting pillar or important machine, and then sneak back inside the boxy shafts. This continued for about an hour as they needed to cover half the base each.

 

Eventually, Saren arrived at the vent to the control room. There were a few more security guards than he had expected, but a large enough singularity would take care of that problem once he managed to back them all into one corner. The brilliant Spectre put up a signal damping bubble in the immediate area after the last of the security teams checked in, but he needed a distraction to get out of the vent first.

 

One oddly enough presented itself in the form of a small animal carcass that was in the vent with him. His first thought was how long he was going to scrub at his armour after this, and his second was just how to use the corpse. Using his perfect mental control over his biotics, the little carcass was lifted and moved out of the vents behind some crates with barely a glow of biotics, and then he dropped it. The sound attracted the nearest guard, who took a buddy with him to check it out. The other three in the room trained their weapons on the crates. ‘ _ Fools _ .’

 

Lowering his weight with a mild biotic lift, the stealthy Spectre slipped out of the vent and behind the human guard standing below him, quickly and silently breaking his neck. He then dragged the body behind the nearest crate, before throwing a singularity at the remaining, clustered guards. All four were close enough to be pulled into the field, leaving them easy targets for headshots from his sidearm. The two controllers were scrambling to contact someone for help, but failed, and were now using their booths as cover to take potshots at him. Not that either of them could aim…

 

The next time one of them popped out to try his luck, they found themselves with a neat little hole between the eyes. The last one, a grey-green salarian, was more cautious. But he eventually slipped up. With the barest bit of shoulder sticking out, the skilled biotic caught his prey in a lift, and before they could make out which way was up, they were dead. The lifeless body was dropped to the floor and Saren got to work, scrambling their communications and searching for any other useful information. 

 

The silver Spectre tapped his comm a few times in a code, to let Nihlus know he had succeeded in his part of the mission. What he didn’t expect, was to get feedback of the obnoxious Asari pop song variety in between the taps before the line closed again. His protege was listening to music again while on a mission. Something he had warned him not to do, it was distracting and blocked out important sounds coming from his surroundings.

 

_ ‘I’ll berate him for this later’.. _ he thought, since they were keeping the comms silent so as not to attract attention to them being there at all. Soon after he saw the lanky and rather flexible torin slip out of a vent on one of the camera feeds, kill a guard with a slit of a throat and plant his bomb on the power generator. 

 

_ ‘Good. All is in place then.’ _

 

There were a number of files detailing other operations and the dealings of some of their illegal arms trade, all of which were quickly copied, and the originals wiped out just in case someone had time to return here before they blew up the facility. A few minutes later, a few taps on the comm came back to him. His student was in place. 

 

It was time to start the assault before anything could go awry. His own explosives were quickly set, and he strode towards his starting point. While he was enroute, the ever clever Spectre remotely triggered the first set of bombs in the cargo area, taking out the merc’s transport and means of escape. With the stored fuel there, the explosions quickly spread, causing chaos. Exactly as he’d intended.

 

Saren could almost hear his protégé’s shotgun going off, but it could only be his imagination as Nihlus was much too far away. Instead he focused on his side of the base, sowing as much chaos in the ranks as possible. With no comms, none of the mercs knew what was really going on, nor where or how many assailants there were. It was perfect. He only encountered small groups at a time, four or five, easily taken out before he moved to the next area, periodically triggering another explosive to keep them guessing and unbalanced. All was going to plan, until his com crackled to life and his student’s voice came through…

 

_ “Saren, need a little help here!” _

 

“What is your situation?” he asked while throwing out a singularity at the last three in his current group, dispatching them quickly and pinpointing his student’s location on his omnitool. He began to follow the directions displayed on his optics for the fastest, non-destroyed route.

 

_ “They have me pinned near the generator. Been able to keep them from flanking but there's too many of them…” _ heavy gunfire could be heard in the background while the conversation continued.

 

“Enroute,” was the stoic spectre’s only reply, but all his student needed.

 

_ “Aaw, shit! They’ve got an engineer. They’re going to…” _

 

Static filled the comm and Saren increased his speed, going at a manageable but quick pace. He knew his student could hold out. He should still have grenades and a plethora of knives on him. Correcting him on his language usage could come later.

 

_ ‘And it had all been going so well.’ _ He sighed to himself _. _

 

The silver Spectre quickly checked his remaining bombs and triggered those farthest away from his knife-loving student, whilst leaving them with an exit route. It also continued to thin the number of potential reinforcements before he managed to arrive at Nihlus’ location.

 

Just as he was about to round the corner to the engineering section, a large explosion knocked him back into the opposing wall. His ears were ringing and his vision swam with tiny black dots for a few seconds before he could right himself and get up again.

 

_ ‘No… no, no, no, no!’ _

 

Electric eyes quickly scanned the area as he rounded the corner again. He halted abruptly as he found his student… Nihlus was unconscious and splayed out on the floor, blue blood starting to pool below him.

 

Movement caught his eye and he saw the first of the survivors begin to stand, they were aiming their assault rifles at him. Each and every one of them was dead before they even took aim. A simmering anger started to boil up within him, how dare these lowlives try and take away what he had worked so hard to cultivate! Nihlus was near the end of his training, to lose him now would be... a waste.

 

Instinct took over and all that was a merc was slaughtered before him; biotics, bullets, it didn't matter, as long as they were dead in the end. Before he knew it, the room was cleared. Twenty-seven dead mercs by his hand alone. His student had indeed been overwhelmed and in a bad position. One of the fuel canisters near him must have been hit and exploded.

 

Now that the way was clear he quickly made his way to Nihlus’ side. He immediately started applying medigel to the worst of his injuries, which stopped the bleeding for now. A fair amount of his torso armour had been destroyed, there were numerous minor burns along his hide and a piece of shrapnel sticking out of his left arm. 

 

Manageable wounds as long as he could extract them without further incident. He took a moment to scan the room one final time, there was nothing that looked useful, so Saren bodily lifted his taller student in a firefighter’s carry instead, leaving one hand open for his pistol.

 

Using a minor lift field once again, the biotic was able to lighten his load and move at a faster pace. Likely not as fast as he’d have been able to on his own… but he wouldn’t leave Nihlus here. With the added damage to the power room, there was a chance the explosives could be set off prematurely, and he wanted to be well away if that happened. The power generator was at the core of the load bearing structure, the entire facility would collapse when the bombs his student planted went off.

 

The Spirits must have been with him, his path was mostly clear of hostiles as he ran for the exit. There were a few here and there that he dispatched quickly with a biotic toss into a wall or bullet between the eyes. Luckily his comm hack was still functioning so none of the survivors could coordinate anything amongst themselves.

 

Once clear of the facility, Saren pressed the last key on his omnitool and the base went up in a spectacular blast. It would have been satisfying to watch if he didn't have an unconscious torin slowly bleeding out over his shoulder to deal with. The trek back felt longer than it should have... a gnawing anxiety settling over him and he refused to acknowledge the source. The reason didn’t matter, all that did was making it back to his ship with his charge still alive in his arms. 

 

\----------------------

 

No sooner had they arrived on the ship did Saren get his student into the medical bay. Broken armour pieces were quickly removed and the automated medibot was left to perform its primary function.

 

[BIOMEDICAL SUITE – ACTIVATED]

[Now scanning...]

[Scan complete. Patient: Kryik, Nihlus J.]

[Multiple hide lacerations detected.]

[Multiple plate fractures detected.]

[Multiple bone fractures detected.]

[Multiple burn sites detected]

[Multiple sites of internal bleeding detected.]

[Foreign matter detected.]

[Calculating efficient order of operation...]

 

The electric-eyed Spectre sighed to himself, his protégé was in a bad way, It was all treatable at least, but that was little consolation. If Nihlus had been alone, he would have died.. He had begun choosing two Spectre missions for them instead of single missions, he had confidence in Nihlus’ abilities… but now… looking at him lying there his mind was racing.  _ ‘Had he misjudged the situation? Were there more troops on his side of the base that I didn’t know about? Was my scouting insufficient?’ _

 

These and more questions were racing around in the Spectre’s head as he returned to the cockpit to set a course for the Citadel, just in case the medibot could not handle all of his injuries. At the very least he would remain stable.

 

Once they were enroute he stood from the pilot’s chair and walked back down the hallway towards his medical bay. Electric-blue eyes stared through the doorway at his unconscious student. The biggest question he had was why? Why, had he reacted the way he did? Seeing Nihlus injured and bleeding on the ground, he hadn’t been able to stop himself from reacting. The stoic Spectre had thought his emotions were well locked away, he never reacted emotionally on a mission. It was… odd, for him. 

 

If Nihlus did not wake, he would have the next two days in silence to think about it.

 

\---------------------

 

Nihlus awoke, very slowly and groggily. The first sound to reach him in his fogged state was the constant beeping of a monitor next to his head. After that, feeling started to return to him… somewhat. His whole left side still felt numb, like it was on fire with pins and needles, but distant at the same time. As his mental capacity started to catch up with the rest of him, he realised that he was on a flat surface, naked, and covered with a blanket; and the slow tempo of his thoughts was probably from being drugged, heavily so.

 

It took a few more seconds for him to try and open his, heavy as lead, eyelids before he promptly shut them with a groan from the bright lights overhead. To his surprise, there was a shuffle of cloth before the lights dimmed down to a more reasonable level.

 

“You may try to open your eyes now, Nihlus.” Came the familiar and almost warm sounding voice of his mentor, and he obeyed. Blissfully, it didn't hurt anymore, but the world was in a haze for longer than normal while his eyes adjusted. When they did, the ceiling was its standard white, and as he slowly and painfully moved his head to the side, said mentor was in a chair next to the bed, fiddling with something on his omnitool.

 

“Wh-” He coughed to clear his dry throat, before trying again. His arm hadn’t moved to cover the cough, he didn't want to move it if it was injured. “Wha’ happnd?” came his slurred words. Half his face was numb too.

 

Regardless of his broken voice, the silver Spectre understood him.

 

“One of the fuel canisters close to your position exploded. You were badly injured. I took care of the remaining mercs and brought you back to the ship for medical attention. However, the mission was a success. We are enroute to the Citadel now, just a few hours out. You were in a medically induced coma until now.”

 

It took a few seconds for him to parse all the information, but he eventually settled on a reply. “Hw badd?”

 

Saren blinked slowly and deliberately, almost as if he was stalling. “First and second degree burns, cracked and broken ribs, cracked mandible, arm and keel broken, a punctured lung from the broken rib on your left side. You are still under pain medication for those.”

 

“Hmm…” was all he could come up with. It was a rather long list. He'd be out for days recovering.

 

“Do not worry, you focus on healing. I will take care of everything.”

 

With that the electric-eyed torin got up and headed out of the medby, but before the doors could close, he was called back.

 

“Sharenn.. youh, you cawied me… thrhee clicks?”

 

“I did,” was his flat response, but not unkindly.

 

“Thanksh.”

 

“You are welcome, now rest up. Dinner will be served soon.”

 

The carmine protégé gave his mentor’s receding back a lopsided grin, before the door closed. And all this time he thought the stubborn silver Spectre didn't care... but maybe… just maybe he did.


End file.
